ARC3303HS
Instructor: Steven Fong

I think our generation is more interested in pragmatics, such as making of a building, running a project, running an office. I think the previous generation is more idealistic. Architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, and Steven Holl believe in utopian possibilities and tend to produce work of extreme originality and ambition. But we are generally a much more realistic and mediatory generation. We are deliberate and more aware of the real possibilities…”
Alejandro Zaera Polo
 

More than 89% of the new construction in Canada is built by the private sector. Yet architecture schools devote little to no attention to understanding the logic of this part of the economy. There are several consequences to this indifference to market-driven building practices.

Recent architecture school graduates are disadvantaged when entering the profession by lack of knowledge about how to engage and work with this significant cohort of clients. Instead, they compete for scarce jobs at offices doing the kinds of public sector programs they know from school projects.

More importantly, there is the need for rethinking the role of private sector projects in the contemporary city. Architects could play a significant part in this much needed change. Many aspects are on the table- Innovations in project delivery, urban morphologies, financing, market focus and climactic resilience and inclusivity.

Formatted to offer a slate of lectures and seminars, this course is devoted to engaging the protagonists of the modern commercial city, on one hand to provide an introduction to market sensibilities and on the other hand to ask the fundamental question, “What could we be doing differently?”